December in Iowa

We spent half the month of December in Iowa and half in Utah.  Since it is too hard to pack all our Christmas presents up for the kids we decided to do our own little "Iowa Christmas" and then do a Utah one.  We celebrated Christmas about 2 1/2 weeks early.  It felt a little weird but the kids didn't know the difference.  These are pictures of our December in Iowa.

Decorating the Christmas tree.

Our faux Christmas Eve.  The kids are opening the pajamas I made them.

Christmas Jammies!

Christmas morning (kind of).  It's a tad blurry but you get the idea.

Valentina opening up her stocking treasures.

Qui Que opening up his remote control car.

Making pancakes with Mommy.

Christmas morning.

Valentina showing off her new slippers and barking dog.

Qui Que all dressed up for church in his Christmas outfit.

Why is it so hard to take pictures of kids?

Valentina hates pictures.

Valentina in her new Christmas dress I made her.

My kids match my living room stripes!

The whole fam.  Merry Christmas!

This year I choked on making the gingerbread house.  I am too big and pregnant and just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Qui Que had a great time decorating this cop out version of a gingerbread house.  Next year I will do a real one.

Valentina enjoying a sugar cookie at our ward Christmas party.

This winter in Iowa has been RIDICULOUSLY cold.  The worst yet- by far!  We have had a lot of stay in the house days.  The kids really wanted to go outside one day so we took a walk around the block.  We made it half way and they both started crying and telling me they were too cold.  I had to carry Valentina home (pregnant) with Qui Que crying and begging me to carry him too.  That is the last walk we have been on.  We are waiting for Spring.

November 2013

November is such a busy month.  Here are some of the highlights of what happened.

Happy Thanksgiving at the Weed home!  The Weed's hosted Thanksgiving this year.  It was great food and great company.  The Weeds, Black and us all ate a ton and had a great time.

Valentina and Madeline

Kinsley, Madeline, Charile and Qui Que

Qui Que getting distracted with coloring while eating his dinner.

Valentina sat at the table for at least an hour coloring.  This is the moment we figured out she loves to color!

Valentina and Qui Que at the doctor's office with me.  They were excited to hear the baby's heart beat.

Qui Que a little confused about which team to pick.  

Raking leaves in our front yard.

5 years ago I married this handsome man.  Now 2 1/2 kids later and still in love we went out to eat to celebrate.    We drove down to Washington Iowa to a wonderful restaurant called, Dodici.  Fabulous.  We loved everything about it!

I left this little stinker alone for 10 minutes and this is what I found.

Qui Que and Valentina's favorite place on the couch.  On top.

Halloween

This was the first year Qui Que really "got" Halloween.  He loved dressing up in his costume and loved even more the thought of knocking on doors and receiving candy.  Valentina had no idea what was going on but that was the best part.  I could choose whatever costume I wanted for her and she didn't care.  She also would have been fine with just going to the one house that gave her a sucker.  She sucked on it the whole trick or treating time.

Carving our pumpkins.

Little Red Ridding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

Getting ready for some trick or treating.

Notice the trim on Valentina's cape.  It is the same trim my mom used on my cape when I was Little Red Ridding Hood about 30 years ago.

And Valentina has got her sucker- let's go!

Chicago!

Right after we got back from our trip to Utah we headed out to Chicago.  We were a little hesitate to go because the kids had had enough of long car rides but we couldn't resist......the Cubs were playing the Braves!  We had to go!

Who ever we tipped a dollar to take this picture forgot to get Valentina in the picture.  

Qui Que in Wrigley Field.

Darancou family in Wrigley Field.

That's right- we sat in the seats second from the very end of the stadium.  Since Wrigley Field is so small we could still see the game pretty good. 

We hit up Lincoln Park Zoo while we were in Chicago too.  It's a favorite or ours-it's free.